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Solar Company Software in Nigeria: From 'How Much for 5kVA' to the Last Instalment
How a Nigerian solar company runs the sales and money side without leaking: enquiries qualified in seconds, quotes followed up for days, surveys that happen, deposits and instalments collected in Naira, and customers remembered when the battery is due.
Monday at a solar company in Abuja. Eleven new enquiries, six open quotes, two surveys, and forty customers from 2023 whose batteries are dying. Who gets handled?
- 8am. 'How much for 5kVA with lithium?' arrives on WhatsApp from an estate group. Your engineer is on a roof in Gwarinpa. The message waits. By noon the same man has quotes from two other companies.
- 10am. A quote you sent two weeks ago gets a 'let's proceed'. The dollar moved 6 percent since. The quote is now a loss. Your salesperson honours it because he does not remember the date.
- 11am. The site survey in Lugbe. The customer is not there. Nobody confirmed yesterday. The engineer drives back.
- 2pm. A customer on an instalment plan is three months behind. Nobody noticed, because the plan is in a notebook and the notebook is in the office.
- 4pm. A 2023 customer calls: the battery is not holding charge. He found a cheaper installer on Instagram for the replacement. You installed the system. He did not remember your name.
- Sunday. Your best salesperson resigns. Every open quote she was chasing is on her personal phone.
What does software actually do for a solar company in Nigeria?
It runs the part of the business that is not engineering. Every enquiry from WhatsApp, Instagram, calls and the website lands in one inbox and gets an instant reply asking about load, location and budget. Site surveys book from a link onto the right engineer's calendar. Quotes go out in Naira and a follow-up sequence runs for days after each one until the customer decides. Deposit and instalment plans are set up for how you sell, with every invoice out on its date and a reminder before. Every installed system sits on the customer's record with its date, so service and battery reminders fire on their own years later. What it does not do, on purpose, is size the system. That stays with OpenSolar or your engineer.
The power situation did the marketing. Every solar company in Nigeria has a WhatsApp that fills up on its own, and every one of them loses most of those enquiries in the same three places: the reply that came after the customer had two other quotes, the quote that went quiet and then stale, and the instalment plan that lived in a notebook.
None of that is engineering. The system was sized correctly. The proposal was good. The money leaked in the parts of the business that run on memory and personal phones.
What follows is the sales and money journey of a Nigerian solar company, stage by stage: where it breaks, and what holds it together instead. Put your own numbers into the quote leak calculator first if you want to see the size of it. If you are still choosing software, the honest comparison covers the real options, including the design tools this page is not.
Where the journey breaks
| Stage | What usually goes wrong | What closes the gap |
|---|---|---|
| The enquiry | Lands on the engineer's or owner's phone while they are on a roof. Waits. The customer is comparing three companies and goes with whoever answered. | Every channel lands in one inbox. An instant reply asks the three questions that size the conversation: what do you want to power, where are you, and what budget or timeline are you working with. |
| The survey | Agreed in a chat. Not confirmed. Customer not home. Fuel wasted. | A booking link puts the survey on the right engineer's calendar. A reminder goes to the customer the day before and the morning of. The engineer arrives to a customer who is expecting him. |
| The quote | Sent as a PDF on WhatsApp, then silence on both sides. Two weeks later it is accepted at a price that no longer covers the panels. | The quote goes out in Naira with its date attached. A follow-up sequence runs: a check-in on day two, the load and battery explanation on day five, financing options on day nine, a case study on day fourteen. A quote older than your cut-off is flagged for re-pricing before anyone confirms it. |
| The deposit | 'I will transfer this week.' The install date gets booked anyway. The transfer comes late or not at all. | A deposit link goes out the moment the customer says yes, in Naira. Paid deposit confirms the install slot. Unpaid, the slot stays open and the follow-up continues. |
| The instalments | Deposit collected, system installed, and the balance over twelve months lives in a notebook. Instalment seven is missed and nobody sees it until month ten. | The plan is set up once. Each invoice goes out on its date with a reminder before. Who is behind is on one screen. Receipts go out automatically when payments land. |
| After the install | Commissioned, paid, forgotten. The battery dies in year three and the customer buys the replacement from a stranger. | The installed system sits on the customer's record with its date and battery type. A service check-in at six months, an annual reminder, and a battery replacement conversation before the bank fails, all fire on their own. A referral request goes out when the system is running well. |
| The team | Customers belong to whichever salesperson's phone they messaged. When she leaves, the open quotes leave too. | Every customer has one named owner and every quote, chat and document belongs to the company. When someone leaves, you remove one login and reassign with full history. |
How the system runs it
-
An enquiry lands
WhatsApp, Instagram, a call, the website form. One inbox, source attached. Within seconds the customer gets a useful reply and the qualifying questions, whether the team is on a roof or not.
-
The customer becomes a record
Load, location, budget, timeline, source. Residential or commercial. From here they are searchable and filterable, in the right pipeline with the right follow-up timing.
-
The survey books itself
A link to the engineer's calendar. The customer picks a slot. Reminders go out. The survey notes and photos are stored on the deal for the quote.
-
The quote goes out and the follow-up starts
Estimate in Naira with its date. The sequence runs for days. It pauses the moment the customer replies. It flags any quote older than your cut-off before it is honoured.
-
Deposit, then the install
Deposit link in Naira. Paid, the installation is booked on the calendar with the crew assigned. The customer gets confirmation and reminders.
-
Instalments run without chasing
The plan is set up for how you sell. Invoices on their dates, reminders before, receipts on payment, and the list of who is behind on one screen. For bank or fintech financing, the arrangement is recorded on the deal.
-
The customer is remembered
Service check-in at six months. Annual reminder. Battery replacement conversation at the right year for the battery type. Referral and review requests once the system has proved itself. Past customers are a filterable list for the next product you add.
The same week, two ways
5kVA enquiry at 8am while the engineer is on a roof
Answered at noon. He has two other quotes.
Replied to in seconds with the three questions. The survey is booked by 8:15.
Two-week-old quote accepted after the dollar moved
Honoured at a loss because nobody knew the date.
Flagged for re-pricing before confirmation. Customer told honestly. Deal kept.
Site survey in Lugbe
Customer not home. Engineer drives back.
Reminded the day before and the morning of. Customer waiting at the gate.
Instalment seven
Missed. Noticed at month ten.
Reminder went out before the date. Missed payment visible on day one. Follow-up ran. Paid in week two.
2023 customer's battery dies
He buys the replacement from a stranger on Instagram.
He got your message in year three before it failed. You did the replacement. He referred his neighbour.
Salesperson resigns
Open quotes leave on her phone.
One login removed. Every quote and chat stays. Reassigned in an hour.
What setting this up involves
- 01
Connect your channels
Your WhatsApp number stays on your phone and connects to the company panel at the same time. Instagram, calls and the website form join the same inbox.
- 02
Set up your products and plans
Your standard systems as products for quoting. Your deposit and instalment plans set up for how you sell. Residential and commercial pipelines with their own stages.
- 03
Write the first reply and the quote follow-up
We write the instant reply and the sequence that runs after every quote, around your systems, your prices and how your customers actually ask. This is the part that recovers deals.
- 04
Bring in your customers
Every past install imports with its date and battery type, so service and replacement reminders start working from day one on customers you already have.
- 05
Add your team
Sales, engineers, owner. Each with a login and a lane. You see all of it.
What GrowUp Business does not do
- GrowUp Business runs the sales, collection and after-sales side. System sizing, shading analysis, panel layout and the engineering proposal are a design tool's job. OpenSolar does it free, and the proposal attaches to the customer's deal.
- GrowUp Business runs your own instalment plan and records every payment. It is not a lender. Bank and fintech financing is arranged with the financier and tracked on the deal.
- Stock levels for the systems and batteries you sell sit on your products, with sold-out control. A warehouse system with supplier orders and physical stock counts is a separate job.
- Installations are scheduled on the calendar with the crew assigned. Crew task lists, checklists and BOQ for a large EPC are field service software.
- GrowUp Business collects deposits and instalments, sends invoices and receipts, all in Naira. Full accounting is a different job.
Common questions
Will customers know I am using a system?
No. They message your normal WhatsApp number and get a fast, useful reply. What changes is on your side: nothing waits for the engineer to come off the roof, every quote has a follow-up, and every instalment has a reminder.
How does it stop me honouring a stale quote?
Every quote carries its date. You set a cut-off, say ten days. A customer who accepts after that is flagged before confirmation so the salesperson re-prices against the current rate and tells the customer honestly. It does not fix the exchange rate. It stops the loss that comes from not remembering when you quoted.
Can residential and commercial run separately?
Yes, and they should. A homeowner and a factory need different questions, different survey depth, different follow-up timing and different payment plans. Two pipelines, two sequences, one inbox.
Can it manage a 12-month instalment plan for a 10kVA install?
Yes. Deposit, then monthly instalments across the tenor. Each invoice goes out on its date in Naira with a reminder before. Who is behind is on one screen. Receipts go out when payments land. It is your own plan, run without chasing.
What about the customers I installed years ago?
Import them with the install date and battery type. From that moment, the six-month service check-in, the annual reminder and the battery replacement conversation at the right year all run for them too. Most installers have hundreds of these customers and no list.
Do I pay per WhatsApp message?
No. There is no per-message or per-conversation WhatsApp charge on top of the subscription, and up to 10 staff logins are included.
Does this replace OpenSolar?
No. Keep OpenSolar or your engineer's tool for the design and the technical proposal. GrowUp Business runs everything around it. [The comparison page](/best-software-for-solar-companies-nigeria/) lays out which tool does which job.
Why owners choose GrowUp Business
- Try it in your business first
- One month free on a full system built for your industry. 14 days free on the quick setup. No card upfront.
- Set up for you
- We build your inbox, bookings, payments, follow-up and staff lanes around how you already work. You are not handed a blank tool.
- Naira, not dollars
- Naira pricing and Paystack payments. Your subscription does not move with the exchange rate.
- No per-message WhatsApp fees
- Your WhatsApp stays on your phone and connects to the business panel. No per-message or per-conversation charge on top.
- Your whole team included
- Up to 10 staff logins included, each with their own lane and permissions.
- Honest about what it does not do
- Every page says plainly where GrowUp Business stops, and which specialist tool does that job instead.
- Built inside working businesses
- These systems were built and proven inside working Nigerian businesses in Abuja before they were offered to anyone else.
See a quote follow-up and an instalment plan run in your own company.
Book a free 15-minute walk-through. We connect your actual WhatsApp, set up one instalment plan the way you sell, and show you the follow-up going out after a real quote. No card, no pressure.
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